


Take me instead

by Fuinixe



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [5]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Historical References, Implied/Referenced Torture, Imprisonment, M/M, Protective Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Protective Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Spanish Inquisition, Threats of Violence, Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:07:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29251200
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fuinixe/pseuds/Fuinixe
Summary: Nicholas is determined to keep the Inquisitors from touching Josef for as long as possible.Josef doesn't realize his plan is as simple as that until it's too late.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2143242
Comments: 4
Kudos: 91
Collections: febuwhump 2021





	Take me instead

**Author's Note:**

> This is the roughest thing I've written yet for this fandom, but participating in Febuwhump is about throughput, not quality. People on tumblr seemed to like it, though...?

Nicholas had known this was a risk, but that didn’t make their capture any easier to bear. 

It was always a risk, helping people, especially in this way, when they were protecting innocents not from natural disasters or scarcity but from other humans. Separated as they were right now from Andromache and Quynh, they had only their blades, their wiles, and each other. 

Sometimes that was not enough, due to bad luck or especially intimidating opponents. This time, they’d ran into both issues:

Fortune had not been with them. And they were up against the Inquisition.

Josef had not wanted to come out here to Spain, his soul weary and yearning for rest after their last depressing mission. But the stories of the persecution of Jews and Muslims had been percolating through to Nicholas for some time now, and he could no longer stay away in good conscience. He always took the Church’s violence personally.

Which was one reason among many he was thinking furiously through a plan to keep them from taking Josef when their captors returned.

They were doubly imprisoned, attached by manacle to the walls of their cell which was itself barred under lock and key. The cell itself was pitch black, in the dungeon of some local liege lord’s home, not even a guttering torch to light their surroundings. He was grateful that Josef could not see his face, for he’d gotten uncannily good at reading Nicholas’s microexpressions, and he was afraid Josef would know what he was planning if he could look at him. 

Josef had just finished composing an extremely silly poem for him, on the spot, about the worms in the cellar and how pleasant they were in comparison to this region’s Bishop, when Nicholas heard footsteps coming down the stone staircase outside. Nicholas felt adrenaline surge through him. He was suddenly terrified that his plan would not work, that Josef would not let it happen. He wished very much that there were some language barrier he could exploit, but unfortunately Josef seemed to learn languages twice as fast as Nicholas himself.

“ _Hayati_ , you must let me talk. Please. Whatever I say. Don’t argue.” Before Josef could respond, the heavy door that blocked out the outside world opened, and two fierce-looking men stepped in, heavily armed and bearing a ring of keys. One stuck his torch in the wall and drew his sword while the other unlocked the cell.

Sword bearer entered first and pointed his weapon threateningly at Nicholas. The key man made as if to unlock Josef, and Nicholas chuckled harshly. “Yes, just as I thought. You stupid Christians can’t even recognize your own.”

“What?” asked the key man, roughly. “What was that?”

Nicholas rolled his eyes. “You’re taking a Catholic convert to be tortured, are you not? Just because he looks like a Moor? Idiot.” Nicholas spat at the man’s feet.

Josef grunted unhappily, but Nicholas steadfastly did not look at his face. “What was he doing then, stealing from the Church?” the man asked, suspiciously.

“Obeying his master’s orders, obviously. This man is my slave. Infidels have no rights.”

“Don’t do this,” Josef said, in Greek.

Nicholas felt his heart swell with gratitude that Josef was not interfering directly.

“And what are you, then?” sword bearer asked. “What are you doing, opposing your own people doing their holy work?”

“Holy? My own people? Pah. It is not and you are not.” Nicholas screwed up his face. “You would call me a heretic, but you are the heretics, truly. You will suffer dearly for the Muslim blood you have spilt.”

“This one,” key man said, decisively. “We will take this one first.”

Nicholas bit back a smile of triumph as his manacles were unchained from the wall, a sword to his throat holding him at bay as he was dragged away.

“I’ll get us out of here,” he vowed to Josef, in their private language, but something about his tone of voice must have sounded less confident than he wished, betraying him, for Josef lunged forward against his chains, just as the cell door was locked once more. 

“No, no, no!” Josef shouted after them, as Nicholas was shoved towards the cellar stairs and stumbled in his bonds, bare feet scraping against rough stone. “Take me instead! _No!_ ”


End file.
